


The Madeleine Moment

by mldrgrl



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Childhood Memories, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-13 18:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12990282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mldrgrl/pseuds/mldrgrl
Summary: Written for tumblr holiday challenge: Gingerbread





	The Madeleine Moment

Scully didn’t have any qualms about selling her mother’s house.  Charlie was the only one of the Scully kids to have lived in it for any amount of time - their parents having moved into it when he was a junior in high school.  It had never been home for Scully, just the place where her parents lived once her father retired.  She’d come “home” for holidays from school for the first few years, but after Charlie left, there were years where Scully was the only one there at Christmas.  If she really thought about it, the last time they’d been together as a whole family, she was 15.

 

The house had been on the market for over a month.  The realtor had warned her that the market was slow between Thanksgiving and New Years’ and not to expect much.  It didn’t matter much to her.  She’d already taken weeks to clear out the house in between cases with Mulder’s help.  It felt like she’d spent more time there since her mother died than she had when her mother was alive.  There wasn’t much there that held any significance to her.

 

When the house had been emptied, the realtor she chose suggested staging certain rooms to give people an inviting feel.  Whatever the woman wanted to do to sell the house, Scully was fine with.  She gave her the keys and thought nothing of it until the weekly texts came with questions or updates.  It had been nearly six weeks since Scully had been to the house, but a few days prior, when she had been in Missouri on a case, the realtor called and told her that on one of her tours, some boxes were discovered beneath the cellar stairs and did she want to pick them up or dispose of them?

 

So, Scully found herself attending the regularly scheduled Sunday open house to pick up the mystery boxes from her mother’s cellar.  Mulder drove her in case it required heavy lifting - a bit of a pretense since they both knew he’d have driven her regardless.  They hadn’t spent a weekend apart in three months.

 

“They changed the landscaping,” Mulder noted as he parked the car in front of the house.

 

“Took out the rose bush mom always liked though,” Scully said, her eyes shifting over the changes that had been made to the front yard.  It was tidier and less dense.  A lot of the overgrown shrubbery had been cut back or removed.

 

Mulder got out of the car, bouncing the keys in his hand as he waited for her on the sidewalk.  She got out and buttoned her jacket up against the cold wind.  With only a glance over his shoulder, Mulder held his hand out to her and she took it as they strolled up the walkway to the front door.  For the first time, she did feel rather odd knocking on her mother’s door, knowing that someone else was going to answer.

 

“Dana,” Suzanne Wheatley said with a chipper smile as she opened the door.  “And Mr. Mulder.  It’s good to see you.”

 

Scully stepped into the foyer, Mulder behind her, and silently took in the front room.  The staged decor was minimalist and sleek.  The walls were bare, yet strategically placed floor lamps, even a large, silver mirror placed just so, gave the room an oddly cozy feel despite it being so stark.  Stark compared to her mother’s taste.

 

“The boxes are in the closet in the laundry room,” Suzanne said.  “Feel free to have a look around.  I was actually just about to call the office to have my assistant book a second appointment with a couple that expressed a lot of interest in the house.  Fingers crossed!”

 

Scully unbuttoned her coat and looked back at Mulder when Suzanne walked away.  “Different,” he mouthed to her.  She nodded.  He followed her deeper into the house, towards the formal dining room.  She paused and her heart began to pound rapidly against her chest with sudden intensity.  She breathed shallowly through her nose.  The scent of gingerbread hung in the air.

 

*****

 

Her first Christmas home from college, and the first at the new house, Mom wanted to throw a party.  It would just be church friends, of course, as they really hadn’t gotten to know any of the neighbors yet.  Charlie had better things to do and got out of it, but Dana felt obliged to help.  Melissa had just moved back in with their parents, sort of, having just returned from Europe on a trip to ‘find herself’ though all she really found was another boyfriend.  She was gone most days, and nights, at this new boyfriend’s apartment, the irony being she’d met him in Spain while he was in an exchange program from American University.  

 

For the four days she’d been home, Dana had had to endure her father’s continual ranting about Melissa’s irresponsibility and Charlie’s foolishness while he praised Bill Jr.’s determination, singling her older brother out as a role model, but saying nothing about his youngest daughter’s 4.23 GPA her first semester of college or the fact that she’d accomplished it while being a year younger than the rest of her classmates.  He’d only gruffly commented that she’d better not lose focus since before she knew it, med school would be around the corner.

 

At two a.m., after sending her mother to bed, Dana sat at the dining room table amongst dozens of gingerbread cookies.  She’d helped in the kitchen, rolling dough and cutting cookies for at least six batches, all of which were now cooled and in need of icing.  As it grew later, her mother had gotten more distraught about the time it was taking and how she needed to be up in mere hours to dress the turkey, not to mention all the other cooking that needed to be done.  Dana told her mother just to go sleep, that she would do the icing.

 

Dana had only gotten through four cookies when Melissa slipped in through the back door.  She was as stealthy and quiet as a mouse, having learned the fine art of sneaking in at the wee hours of the morning quite early on.

 

“Jesus,” Melissa hissed, dropping her bag on the table before pulling off her jean jacket.  “What in the hell are you doing making cookies at two a.m.?”

 

“Watch it!” Dana whispered, putting her arm out to protect the cookies from the contents of Melissa’s bag, which were dangerously close to spilling out over the table and ruining at least one plate of gingerbread men.

 

“This is insanity.  Mom is fucking insane, you know that, right?”

 

“She’s not insane, she just wants to have a nice party.”

 

“Insane.”  Melissa shook her head and then disappeared into the kitchen.  She came back out a few minutes later with two shot glasses and a bottle of whiskey.

 

“Missy!”  Dana chastised.  “Put that back!”

 

“Oh, Dana, lighten up.  You’re in college now, you can’t tell me you haven’t had a drink or two at a party.”

 

“I don’t have time for parties, I need to study.”

 

Melissa rolled her eyes and poured out two shots anyway.  She sat down in the chair next to Dana and slid one of the glasses towards her.  Without waiting, she downed her own shot, winced and hissed, and then picked up one of the cookies, cut into the shape of a tree, and grabbed the green tube of icing.  Dana stared at her.

 

“I need fortification if I’m going to spend all night icing cookies for our insane mother,” Melissa said, and then nodded to the shot glass in front of Dana.  “You do too.  Drink up.”

 

Dana hesitated, but then threw the shot back.  She coughed and her eyes watered.  She had to wipe her mouth with her sleeve to rid the stinging from her lips and then she went back to work icing the snowman cookie in front of her.  She got through two more cookies, in silence, before Melissa poured them another shot.

 

“This sucks,” Dana murmured, staring at the imbalance between iced and plain cookies in front of them.  The second shot had gone straight through her like fire, liquefying her muscles and loosening her tongue.  “It really fucking sucks.”

 

“I’m helping.  We’ll get through it in no time.  Tell me about school.”

 

“School fucking sucks too.”

 

“Why?”

 

Dana sighed.  “I don’t know.”

 

“There has to be a reason.”

 

“I…”  Dana stopped herself.  She was about to start spilling secrets she swore she wouldn’t tell, but she ached to tell someone.  She was never very close to her sister.  They were too different.  Melissa was cool and sophisticated in a way Dana would never be.  She’d idolized her older sister when they were kids, but as they grew up, they also grew apart.  She didn’t know much about Melissa’s life beyond the judgmental disdain their parents had for how she lived it.

 

“Fine,” Melissa said, reaching across Dana for one of the gingerbread men to ice.  “I probably wouldn’t get it anyway, right?  Since I’m the irresponsible fuck-up who never went to college.”

 

“It’s nothing like that.”

 

“I’m sure.”

 

“I...I lost my virginity,” Dana whispered, sudden tears pricking her eyes which she blinked away.

 

“Well, fucking finally,” Melissa answered, but she put down the icing and turned to her sister.  “Don’t worry about it, Dana, it’s not that big of deal.  You’re not a whore and you’re not going to hell, despite what those idiot nuns have tried to pollute your brain with.  It’s natural, completely nat-”

 

“That isn’t it,” Dana interrupted, shaking her head.  She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and then bit her lip.

 

“Look, if you’re pregnant, I’ll help you deal with it.”

 

“That’s  _ not _ it.  I...he hasn’t spoken to me since it happened.  I’m afraid maybe I did something wrong or...or…”

 

“Listen, men are assholes.  He hasn’t talked to you because he’s an asshole, not because you did something wrong.”

 

“You don’t know that.”

 

“Oh, but I  _ do _ know.  Trust me.  I’m sorry, babe, if you think he broke your heart, but he won’t be the last.  It’s only the worst because he’s the first.”

 

“That’s not really that comforting.”  Dana’s voice squeaked as her throat closed and a hot tear rolled down her cheek.  Melissa reached over and brushed it away.

 

“You are so fucking amazing, Dana.  You deserve someone so much better than...what was his name?”

 

“Miles.”

 

“ _ Miles _ ?  Jesus, Dana, you’re crying over some tool named  _ Miles _ ?  You are definitely better than any asshole named Miles.”

 

Dana could help the soft laugh that bubbled up from her chest and then she wiped her eyes.  The sting of rejection lifted a little, but it was still painful to think about.  She had a sudden terrifying thought that her parents would find out and she nervously licked at the side of her lip as she glanced at the doorway to the front room.

 

“You...you won’t tell Mom, will you?” she asked.

 

“Oh come on, Dana.”

 

“I don’t think she would understand.”

 

“Huh.”  Melissa arched her left eyebrow and picked up the tube of icing again.  “Have you ever taken a look at Billy’s birth certificate?”

 

“No.”

 

“June 1, 1960.”

 

“I know that.”

 

“Date of parents’ marriage, January 22, 1960.  I know I’m not great at math, but that doesn’t add up to nine months to me.”

 

It was Dana’s turn to raise her brow.  “Are you serious?”

 

“Listen, if Mom ever tries to lecture you about premarital sex being a sin, you just drop that little fact on her and see how fast she shuts up.”

 

“Oh my God.”

 

“Look.”  Melissa held up the gingerbread man she’d been icing.  Dana’s cheeks darkened.  Her sister had iced genitalia between the cookie’s legs.

 

“Melissa!”

 

“I’m calling him Miles.”

 

Dana’s cheeks grew even redder.  “We can’t put that cookie out for Mom’s church friends.”

 

“We’re not going to.  You’re going to take this cookie and bite his dick off.”

 

“ _ Melissa _ !”  Dana gasped, but then she started laughing as Melissa waved it in front of her face.

 

“Come on, Dana.  He deserves.  Bite it right off.”

 

“Oh my God.”  Dana took the cookie and after a few moments of hesitation, she closed her eyes and bit it in half.

 

“There you go.  Fuck you, Miles, and your dumbass name.”

 

Dana brushed cookie crumbs from her lap and gave Melissa the other half of the cookie.  She supposed the loss of one gingerbread man would go unnoticed.  There were still so many to ice though, and it was almost three in the morning.

 

“Why did she have to make so many cookies?” Dana murmured, sighing as she picked up a plain one to ice.

 

“Because she’s fucking insane,” Melissa answered.

 

*****

 

Mulder put his hands on Scully’s shoulders and gave them a squeeze.  She blinked and tipped her head back to look up at him.  He gave her a quizzical look and she reached up to cover one of his hands.

 

“You okay?” he asked.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Thinking about your mom?”

 

“No, actually.”  She shook her head.

 

“You want to grab those boxes and get out of here?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

Mulder gave her another squeeze and then dropped his hands.  He moved through the kitchen and she followed, pausing at the oven to bend and peer into the window.  She remembered reading once that a trick of selling real estate was to make the house smell like cookies.  Sure enough, a sheet of gingerbread men were baking inside.  She breathed deep and closed her eyes.

 

“Usually I do chocolate chip,” Suzanne said from behind her.  “But, my daughter has a holiday party at school tomorrow and I needed to do gingerbread men.”

 

“They look good,” Scully said, straightening.

 

“Found the boxes,” Mulder, coming into the kitchen with the two boxes stacked on top of each other in his arms.

 

“We have to get going,” Scully said to Suzanne.

 

“Well, I just made a second appointment with some buyers for Tuesday.  Hopefully I’ll have good news for you!”

 

“Thanks.”

 

Scully went out ahead of Mulder and guided him down to the car.  She popped the trunk with her set of keys and he placed both boxes inside.  He was about to close the door, but she stopped him and asked for his pocket knife.  He pulled it out of his pocket and then broke through the tape on both boxes before stepping back to let Scully open them.

 

“Huh,” Scully said.

 

Mulder looked over her shoulder and pulled the flaps of the boxes open.  “Jelly jars?”

 

“Boxes of jelly jars.”

 

“Was your mom big into canning?”

 

“Not at all.  Not that I know of.”

 

“Huh.”

 

Scully started to laugh.  “Sometimes she was just fucking insane.”

 

Mulder turned his head towards her and raised his brows.  She chuckled and put her hand on his arm.  “Come on,” she said.  “Let’s go home.”

 

The End


End file.
